Published: March 07, 2009 09:57 pm         

Strong finish to 11-21 season helps ISU men's basketball look forward

St. Louis — Indiana State ended the 2009 season with its worst won-loss record (11-21) since 2004. The Sycamores had two losing streaks of seven games or more. ISU was in the play-in round and failed to make it to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals for the eighth season in a row.

Yet with the way ISU ended its season — seven wins in nine games, including an impressive four wins away from Hulman Center — and with ISU losing just one player from the current roster, there’s an optimistic outlook for the future after a season that was alternately nightmarish and exhilarating.

“The finish gave us motivation going into next season. We felt like we played with anyone, no one wanted to play us late.

“We return everybody but Jay, it can only go up from here,” ISU guard Aaron Carter said.

Carter’s words ring true for ISU coach Kevin McKenna. He acknowledged that it was a hard year, but credited the Sycamores for not getting too down in the face of a record that bottomed out at 4-19 early in February.

“I think it wasn’t a successful season in one sense, but you look at how the team came along from where we were and how we finished, the level we were playing at in the end was at a high level, I give the players a lot of credit for sticking with it,” said McKenna on Saturday, one day removed from ISU’s exit from the MVC Tournament.

“They stuck together, they kept competing and made something of the season. Was it successful? No way. But we had some mild success at the end, success we need to build on. We did prove one thing, we can make some things happen. ISU was one of the most dangerous teams in the last third of the season, but it contrasted with the first two-thirds of the season when the Sycamores stumbled badly. Rebounding woes, occasional shooting slumps — and worst of all ... turnover problems — were all on-floor issues that contributed.

McKenna pointed to the side-effects of the departure of Marico Stinson just before the season as well as Harry Marshall’s ineligibility. Young players (Jordan Printy, Carl Richard, Tyler Cutter) were forced to play major minutes and they struggled.

“You can point to a lot of different reasons and things. When we made our nonconference schedule, we planned on having those guys [Stinson and Marshall], and not having those guys, it played into some of it,” McKenna said.

“We were inexperienced at the guard spots. Jordan, Rashad [Reed], Tyler, Aaron [Carter] ... they were all relatively inexperienced, Aaron was the only one who had played a lot,” McKenna added. “Then Rashad breaks his hand. It made it really difficult to get organized, to be organized to play smooth basketball. It was pretty overwhelming and we really struggled, it got us off on the wrong foot.”

ISU gradually corrected the rebounding, shooting and turnover woes and played very well in the final nine games, winning at Illinois State, Missouri State and Southern Illinois along the way.

“Our team can hang its hat that in this season, it could have gone down the drain, but we never quit, we never gave up, we can use that [for next season],” Marshall said.

Based on exhausted eligibility, ISU will lose just one player. Forward Jay Tunnell departs leaving the Sycamore fans begging for more. Tunnell came on in his last nine games, averaging 19.6 points in that stretch. Not only will Tunnell’s loss of production be felt, but ISU does not have a big who has proven that they can score on a regular basis. McKenna is confident, however, that Brant Leitnaker, Isiah Martin and Josh Crawford can fill the roles.

“You’re always looking for big guys, but I really feel if Brant can get healthy, if Isiah improves and if Josh gets stronger — he had flashes of doing some things on the court — if they put all that stuff together and work hard in the off-season, they will be fine,” McKenna said.

ISU should have no problems finding bodies elsewhere on the floor. Marshall, Reed, Printy and Carter form an experienced backcourt and are joined by Tyler Cutter as well as incoming freshmen Jake Odum, Logan Eitel and Lucas Eitel.

Louisiana Tech transfer Dwayne Lathan will be added to the mix and could play anywhere from the two to the four spot. Koang Dulouny will also be able to play after his redshirt year and can play both guard and forward. Carl Richard showed big promise as a rebounder and ISU hopes to make him more of a perimeter and ball-handling threat if he can be moved back to his more natural three-spot. True freshman R.J. Mahurin will also factor into the mix.

“What we can look forward to is our defense will get a whole lot stronger and quicker. It’s a good thing to change up your defense — go big, go small, we can speed up the game — we can use our tempo the way we want it to,” Marshall said.

McKenna, who said at various times that the second season of a coaching stint can be harder than the first, said refinement is the key for ISU returning players and coaches.

“They all have deficiencies in their games, the coaches have deficiencies too. We just need to keep working at it and it all needs to be refined,” McKenna said.

McKenna offered specifics.

“Harry can improve on his ball-handling and his shooting, Rashad can improve his ball-handling and decision-making, Jordan can slide his feet better defensively, Aaron can get better defensively, Josh can get stronger, Brant needs to get healthy, Isiah needs to get stronger, get committed, Carl can improve his ball-handling and perimeter shooting, the incoming guys are going to need to get stronger,” McKenna explained.

“There are things to do, things to work on. It’s easy to think, ‘I’m going to be a year older, and a year better.’ I doesn’t work that way, but we have some kids who want this to happen,” McKenna added.

ISU is on spring break this week. When the players return, McKenna and the coaching staff plans to meet with each of them one-on-one to discuss the future and what needs to be done.